August 2022 - EHC newsletter by Every Home For Christ - AU/NZ

GOOD NEWS

BRAZIL August 2022

A Brazil-Sized Dream Imagine you’re Alessandro, and you start Imagine you want to see every beating heart in the fifth largest country in the world inviting local churches to do what Jesus called his people to do — “go and make disciples.” - Brazil - personally encounter Jesus. Big places call for big plans, which is Then you discover that there are very few exactly what Alessandro Soares, our Every spiritually mature, trained pastors as the Home for Christ National Director in Brazil, Church’s growth in Brazil in recent decades outpaced the training and discipleship of has. Imagine you are Alessandro. Your its leaders. If you’re Alessandro, you begin to challenge is figuring out how to reach 322 distinct people groups, from isolated villages understand why the generations of deep in the world’s largest rainforest to ministry leadership who came before multicultural cities like Rio de Janeiro. you dreamed of building a place That will take people — trained, passionate, where local pastors could be trained. The dream will take shape in your own dauntless people who can be present to the suffering in sprawling slums and who heart for “a space to change the world.” don’t mind hacking through miles of jungle. And you’ll want to make it happen in this They must be people defined by love generation. and faith big enough for all of Brazil. The dream that began in 1986 has been passed from one generation of Every Home for Christ leadership in Brazil to the next. Where do you find that? The local church! Australia: PO Box 168 Penshurst NSW 2222 Telephone: (02) 9570 8211 Facsimile: (02) 9570 4738 ABN: 88001276240 www.everyhome.org.au E-mail: ehc@everyhome.org.au New Zealand: PO Box 31-260 Milford North Shore City 0741 NZBN: 9429043322862 Telephone: Free call 0800 900 200 Facsimile: 0061 2 9570 4738

Alessandro Soares Brazil Every Home for Christ National Director

Today, that dream is a reality in the Oikos Training Centre of Brazil. It’s a campus equipped with dorms, classrooms, and outdoor recreation facilities to train 500 pastors a year, centrally located between two Brazilian population centres. The Oikos Training Centre is built on the premise that if you’re going to change the world, you have to start by transforming individual lives. You need leaders who are thriving in Christ, equipped for ministry that lasts. You need local churches led by healthy pastors to carry a vision for an entire nation — a nation as big as Brazil. The Oikos Training Centre launched in 2019, weathered the pandemic, and is now operating at full capacity. But Alessandro needs your help. Pastors and leaders from all over Brazil are coming to the Oikos Training Centre for support, training, and discipleship. Each person who is trained will return home and engage their congregation - and beyond - to carry the hope of Christ to their communities. Alessandro and his team can offer each local pastor a full training for just $250. Imagine the exponential reach of $250 in Brazil through the Oikos Training Centre. A wellequipped pastor disciples a local church. A local church reaches a community. The transformation of a community sparks the redemption of a nation.

You can do more than imagine. Every dollar you give makes a difference. Your contribution of any amount is combined with resources and prayer from believers around the world in the Every Home for Christ fellowship. And every $250 means another leader is trained - for a local church, a nation and the world.

In 2021, the country had a population amounting to around 212.6 million people, a figure which continues to increase. Brazil’s largest cities are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília. CAPITAL: Brasília PRESIDENT: Jair Bolsonaro POPULATION: 212.6 million OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Portuguese

Please Pray for Brazil

Dear EHC Friends, Because Every Home for Christ is committed to serving local churches to carry the love of Jesus to every person on earth, we are naturally concerned with the spiritual formation of local pastors. Our leadership in over 150 nations supports thriving churches led by healthy pastors who are personally invested in the Christ-centred redemption of their own communities. You have just read one exciting example of this from our ministry in Brazil. It’s the story of a man named Alessandro and a decades-old dream for an entire nation. We love this story because it celebrates a vision that has been carried through generations of faithful ministry leadership, Alessandro continuing the evangelism work of his father-in-law in Brazil. The Every Home vision has been carried through many generations all over the globe. We are blessed - each one of us - to steward that vision. It is an honour to be part of a ministry committed to dreams like Alessandro’s: practical plans that multiply the reach of the hope of Christ by serving people in meaningful ways. We support Alessandro. Alessandro serves local pastors. Local pastors lead congregations. Congregations transform communities. Communities add up to entire nations reached with the love of Jesus. You are a vital part of this generational vision, and we are grateful you are here.

For the harvest, Dick Eastman International President

Tanner Peake President-elect

SUCH EXCITEMENT FOR ORPHANED CHILDREN IN ZAMBIA!

Over the last 12 months, 47 shallow wells have been built or rehabilitated to provide fresh, clean water for more than 6,000 men, women and children in Zambia and Malawi. However this well currently being built near the Feeding Centre for orphaned children in Zambia is a deep water well as there is much rock and a shallow well was not suitable. Thanks to the generosity of supporters these children under the age of 5, whose parents have died from illnesses like Malaria or Aids, will now enjoy better health and freedom from water-borne illnesses that plague this area. Already they have suffered much with the passing away of their parents and it is such a blessing to be able to help them in this way.

THIS IS WHAT THE NEW WELL FOR THE SKEVA CHILDREN’S CENTRE WILL LOOK LIKE!!

One of the EHC supporters who has helped to build this well has asked that a plaque be added to the well that says John 3:16 - THANK YOU JESUS Not just water, but the water of life!!!

THANK YOU

Thank you so much for praying for Diplave and Sangita Diplave writes: Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I just want to share this quick journey experience with you of my last visit to Nepal in February 2022. On this trip my main plan was to get married, with some short travel together with my wife and also doing a week of quick monitoring of Nepal Every Home for Christ. However, our God Almighty had planned something more amazing than I could have ever imagined. Just like the Bible says -

“My plans aren’t your plans, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my plans than your plans” Isaiah 55:8-9. If I have to give a title to this experience I would give a title called “persecution to privilege”. As you might know my family background is Hindu and of course Christianity is not encouraged. I did anticipate some challenges within the family; it seems the enemy was very active.

Within a week of my arrival in Nepal, people were getting sick in the family, like one of my nephews got sick and had to go through surgery with complications, another nephew got sick and started bleeding from his nose and one of my brothers got extreme fever and bad pain in his stomach and was rushed into hospital. Yet, there was an environment of marriage and celebration. Somehow by God’s Grace there was no disruption in the marriage and I took my wonderful wife home with me. However, within a few days there were rumours and comments that because of the Christian marriage in the family people were getting sick and things were not going well. After the marriage, within two days of staying at home, I had to move out from home. Being in the ministry of Every Home for Christ for more than 10 years, I have read and preached plenty of times about believers being persecuted, facing challenges and even being killed in some instances just because of their faith in Christ. For me, facing the situation was not easy as we were dealing with our own family. On the other hand, God took us out from the context of family and relatives and used us in His work. Otherwise we would have been busy in family dynamics.

He used me through preaching in different settings like in one rural village church with only 25 houses in the village and 15 families in Christ, a newly planted church in the village with around 30 believers, one large church in the town with 400-500 believers and also one of the youth camps called “Beep Camp” where 70 young people were there. Also there was a district youth leadership vision-sharing camp where around 16 youth leaders from the whole district came and God used me to encourage them. In my preaching my main passages of scripture and sermon titles were from Matthew 8:18-22 - (It is worth following Jesus), Isaiah 6: 1-13 (God is calling still today and Are you willing?) and from Genesis chapter 1 (Allow God’ power to work into your life). After finishing the journey, when I was on the plane, I was looking back thinking about the trip and the journey and I understood by God’s grace that our God is the one who does amazing things through us and He is the one who changes the season from “persecution to privilege”. I hope this little note will be a blessing to you. Thank you again for your prayers and support. In Christ,

In the remaining 4 weeks we travelled together and engaged in various ministry work as God led us.

Rev Diplave Pokhrel

Diplave lives in Sydney but is available for preaching ministry anywhere in Australia, New Zealand or elsewhere ... He is a Graduate of the Morling Bible College and Hillsong International Leadership College. Phone Diplave at Every Home for Christ : Australia (+61) 02/9570 8211 New Zealand Freecall: 0800 900 200 or email - diplave@everyhome.org.au

AUGUST 2022 Bible Readings: This month the daily text will be taken from the book of Psalms. For those wanting to do the one-year Bible reading program these chapters are in brackets.

PRAY FOR DICK AND DEE EASTMAN Dick is the International President of Every Home for Christ with a large responsibility for EHC ministries across the world. Psalm 15 (Psalms 135 - 136) PRAY FOR DIPLAVE POKHREL Diplave is now back in Australia, waiting for his wife Sangita to be granted a Visa to enter Australia as his wife. Please pray she will receive her Visa for Australia quickly. Psalm 16 (Psalm 146 - 150)

PRAY FOR ERIC AND LORRAINE LEACH Pray God will guide Eric in his leadership as Executive Director in Australia and New Zealand and Lorraine with EHC office responsibilities. Psalm 17 (1 Chronicles 1 - 5) PRAY FOR YOUR FAMILY - sons, daughters and grandchildren, plus others to come to Christ. Get a piece of paper and write down their names. Get their photos and pray every day for their salvation; eternity without Christ is a long time! Psalm 18 (1 Chronicles 6 - 9)

BULGARIA Pop. 6,900,000 Map. 77 “We are thankful to the Lord that over 3,000 New Testaments and pieces of gospel literature in Ukranian and Russian have been distributed,” our team in Bulgaria reports. Pray that future shipments of literature arrive safely.”And please pray that more and more churches get involved in the ministry with refugees.” Psalm 19 (1 Chronicles 10 - 12) MYANMAR Pop. 54,400,000 Map. 135 “Please pray for all of our pioneer missionaries,” the EHC team in Myanmar asks. “Pray that they will be led by God in their respective regions.” May our brothers and sisters be guided by God’s Word and His will as they share the truth and love of Jesus. May God prepare the way before them. Psalm 20 (1 Chronicles 13 - 16)

BRAZIL Pop. 212,600,000 Map. 218 The team are designing a new, updated piece of gospel literature specifically for their context and ask for prayer for the creation of their new design. Pray God will empower them and give them wisdom so that the literature will be a tool to reach more lives for Christ. Psalm 21 (Psalms 42,44) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Pop. 331,000,000 Map. 176 Pray for the church in the United States to be filled with people of peace. Pray that God will instill a passion for those without Christ in his people. Pray that God will call men and women to boldly reach their communities with the Gospel. Psalm 22 (Psalms 45 - 47) ROMANIA Pop. 19,200,000 Map. 78 ‘We want to mobilise churches, train volunteers, meet with church leaders, and encourage as many churches across the country to get involved in personal evangelism,” says our team in Romania. “Pray the Gospel will reach tens of thousands.” Psalm 23 (Psalms 48 - 50) DEM.REP OF CONGO Pop. 89,600,000 Map. 19 “Our prayer is that peace may be established in the east region of DRC where we live,” our team says. “We continue to study effective methods of sharing Jesus Christ with the refugees of wars that occur arround us. May God sustain us and bring true peace because He is the Prince of Peace.” Psalm 24 (Psalms 73 - 76)

10 11

EAST AFRICA

“We have been experiencing persecution like never before,” our team in this nation reports. “We are highly restricted and cannot even go from place to place to share the Gospel. Christians are praying in hiding for the end to this persecution and restriction. Pray for strength in this trying time.” Psalm 25 (Psalms 77 - 78)

PRAY FOR ISRAEL ROMANS 11:28

SOUTH ASIA “We shared many pieces of gospel literature, and the Gospel was preached verbally to individuals who received literature,” the team in this nation shares. “We urge everyone in the EHC family worldwide to pray for the seeds that were sown to grow by the Holy Spirit.” Psalm 26 (Psalms 79 - 81) AMERICAS Pray for the distribution of the Love Your Neighbour mobilisation kits throughout the Americas. These kits are a new tool launching in the Americas to train their congregations for evangelism. Pray these kits will inspire and equip church leaders and members to love their neighbours and share the Gospel. Psalm 27 (Psalms 82 - 85)

SPAIN Pop. 46,800,000 Map. 60 “We had the opportunity to participate in several meetings with pastors and ministries in the cities of Madrid, Zaragoza and Logrono to present the ministry, raise awareness and mobilise the evangelisation of Spain,” our team says. “Let us pray for a sense of urgency to fulfill the Great Commission in Spain.” Psalm 28 (Psalms 87 - 88)

TANZANIA Pop. 59,700,000 Map. 16 “Pray for the unreached tribes, especially Massai people in the Arusha and Manyara regions,” asks our team. “Pray for the pastors who are working in difficult areas. Pray for the tribes who are much affected by witchcraft in the southern part of Tanzania.” Psalm 29 (1 Chronicles 17 - 22)

MIDDLE EAST “Please pray for the encouragement of believers to reach new areas,” asks our team in this nation. “Also pray for the spiritual development and strengthening of the faith of a particular marginalised people group and for unity, fellowship and the spirit of togetherness for our fellow workers and volunteers.” Psalm 30 (1 Chronicles 23 - 27)

HONDURAS Pop. 9,900,000 Map. 182 “Dear brothers and sisters, I ask your prayers for an outreach that we are doing in the community of San Jose San Isidro in the city of Marcala,” writes the team in Honduras. “Please help us pray for a great harvest of souls and for people to commit to continue sharing the Gospel. Psalm 31 (1 Chronicles 28 - 29) SOUTHEAST ASIA Please pray for God to raise up a leader to guide and shepherd Every Home for Christ ministry operations in Southeast Asia. May this person be filled with a passion for those without Christ. May they be a person of courage, humility, wisdom, steadfast faith and Christlike love. Psalm 32 (2 Chronicles 1 - 5) NIGER Pop. 24,900,000 Map. 36 “Let’s pray for the security situation in our country,” this team says. “Recently, attacks have been committed in areas near the capital city. Let us pray the Prince of Peace will bring peace in every region of Niger so that every home can be reached with the light of the Gospel.” Psalm 33 (2 Chronicles 6 - 9) SOUTH ASIA “We are finding it difficult to get people to go out on outreach because people need to work to provide for their families,” the team reports. Ministry in Creative Access nations requires sacrifice and presents more financial challenges. Pray for God’s provision. The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. Psalm 34 (2 Chronicles 10 - 16)

SWITZERLAND Pop. 8,700,000 Map. 62 We are preparing to reach nine regions of Switzerland,” our team reports. We are also creating websites where people who receive gospel literature during outreaches can follow up and find answers to their questions. “We pray that people and churches will support this project with passion,” they say. Psalm 35 (2 Chronicles 17 - 21)

Send your prayer request to us and we will pray for you too!

MOZAMBIQUE Pop. 31,300,000 Map. 8 “As we continue reaching homes, we are daily discovering the depth of poverty our people are living in,” the team shares. “Please join us in prayer that Jesus may direct us to initiatives that will equip our people to effectively produce food sustainably. Pray also for the wellbeing of our vulnerable people.” Psalm 36 (Obadiah)

CENTRAL ASIA “We pray that God would use the gospel literature that we distributed recently,” our EHC team in this Creative Access nation says. “Pray that the seeds our team has planted will grow into a great harvest. Psalm 37: 1 - 20 (2 Chronicles 22) PERU Pop. 32,900,000 Map. 217 “Pray for our project to reach marginalised people,” our team asks. “Pray that everything we are planning materialises. And pray that churches will commit to discipling new believers through follow-up. Also, pray for God’s protection on each outreach trip and for positive responses in the three regions we will reach.” Psalm 37: 21- 40 (Joel 1 - 3) ITALY Pop. 60,500,000 Map. 65 “We have been broadcasting a TV program in Italian on the channel Enjoy TV, which is owned by our partner,” our team says. “The channel is at risk of being shut down. This station is a really important tool to share the Gospel in homes.” Pray that God will provide a way for our team to continue broadcasting. Psalm 38 (2 Chronicles 23:1 to 26:8) BURKINA FASO Map. 40 Pop. 20,900,000 “Please, continue praying for our dear country, Burkina Faso,” our team asks. “The children of the nation have turned into terrorists. Please, we need God’s grace to stand in the midst of these troubles. Churches are still preaching the Good News of Christ. Praise God for His protection toward them.” Psalm 39 (Isaiah 1 - 5)

CENTRAL ASIA “We praise God that many unbelieving children and adults come through our ministry. We have constant contact with about 600 people,” the team says. “We plan to create more home groups so they can study the Bible and come to know Christ. Please pray that these people would come to believe in the Lord.” Psalm 40 (2 Chronicles 26:9 - 23, Isaiah 6) GEORGIA Pop. 3,900,000 Map. 103 “The economic situation in Georgia is difficult, our EHC team in this nation reports. “Unemployment is one of the problems. Many people are irritated. Please pray for peace in Georgia.” Pray for God to bring hope to the people of Georgia and work powerfully through the Church there. Psalm 41 (2 Chronicles 27 - 28)

CAPE VERDE Pop. 500,000 Map. 43 Our team recently launched two intensive trainings. One is for pastors and leaders; the other is for evangelism. Both last 15 to 18 months.“The objective is to prepare pastors to plant more churches in Cape Verde,” our team explains. “Please pray that God will help us and that all obstacles will be overcome.” Psalm 42 (2 Chronicles 29 - 32) NICARAGUA Pop. 6,600,000 Map. 183 “Please pray that more pastors and leaders join us in evangelism,” our team asks. “Also pray for the Love Your Neighbour project which is about to launch in our country. Pray for the world’s missionaries, especially the ones in Nicaragua, so that they can continue working tirelessly to fulfill the Great Commission.” Psalm 43 (Isaiah 7 - 12) CENTRAL ASIA “A woman came to Jesus after He healed her through the prayers of believers,” our team in this nation shares. “But now, her village is threatening to cast her out. Please pray for her and for open hearts in her village. Psalm 44 (Isaiah 13 - 23)

1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing”